DRINKING WATER

Picture6 4 Essential Truths About Carbon Reactivation

Long-standing myths about GAC reactivation are being increasingly challenged, revealing performance, cost, and sustainability benefits many utilities may have overlooked.

DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • City Of Auburndale Leading The Way With Smart Water Technologies

    Located in central Florida, the City of Auburndale is a thriving and steadily growing community that boasts great spaces to live, work and play. With more than a dozen lakes and ponds within its borders, a crucial component of the city’s appeal can be found in its abundance of water. In 2016, the Public Utilities Department saw a need to upgrade aging infrastructure across its water system. The city’s water meters and endpoints had provided many years of reliable service, and it was an opportune time to investigate how more advanced technology could benefit the utility and its customers.

  • Why Planning Is The Hero Of AMI Deployment

    Thorough planning, accurate data, and strong communication are the keys to successful AMI deployments, preventing costly disruptions and ensuring technology delivers long-term operational and customer service value.

  • Case Study: Chemplast Chooses Aquatech's HERO™ & ZLD The Chemplast Mettur plant uses the Cauvery River as their main fresh water source. A strong industrial growth in recent years has resulted in water scarcity in the region. Industries are also required to follow strict environmental norms for discharging effluents. The intent of a Waste Water Treatment Plant was to have complete treatment, recycle and reuse of the combined waste water streams to reduce intake from the Cauvery River while not discharging any liquid waste streams. By Aquatech International Corporation
  • Comparing Benefits Of V-Cone® And Coriolis Meters

    Proper operation of water treatment processes depends on accurate flow measurements. Also, flow data is often required by regulatory agencies.

  • Severn Trent Exceeds Leak Reduction Targets With Innovative Itron Water Solutions

    Severn Trent’s smart metering program, powered by Itron’s technology, is transforming water conservation—reducing leaks by 6 million liters, cutting costs, and empowering customers to use water more wisely.

  • Centuries Old Infrastructure Gains Control With The Insta Valve 250

    Hydra-Stop’s solution allowed the city to gain control of their infrastructure where no valves were present.

  • Top Cybersecurity Trends Driving Digital Transformation For Water Utilities

    Cybersecurity continues to grow as a critical initiative for water utilities, with certain trends helping to drive and even accelerate digital transformation.

  • How AMI Works To Underpin Resiliency

    With the rate of natural disasters on the upswing—and the possibility of terror attacks and source water issues always present—municipalities are under more pressure than ever to build resiliency into their water systems.

  • AMERICAN Flow Control SEMPER® RPM Provides Critical Help For Birmingham Water Works

    In October 2021, the Birmingham Water Works (BWW) in Birmingham, Alabama, discovered a broken water main in one of its city centers. Read the full case study to see how SEMPER RPM provided critical help.

  • Program Over Product: The Proven Path To Reducing Non‑Revenue Water

    Stop treating non-revenue water as a series of isolated leaks. By adopting a structured, audit-based program, utilities gain the system-wide visibility needed to prioritize repairs, recover lost revenue, and transition from reactive maintenance to proactive infrastructure management.

DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES

  • Preliminary Assessment Of Water Quality In Riviera Grise Near Port-Au-Prince, Haiti
    10/17/2012

    The Riviera Grise drains water from the Cul-de-Sac watershed, Haiti, which covers most of the rural areas along the flood plains and areas that extend into steep hillsides. It also covers urban areas of Port-Au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti.

  • Reduce Or Eliminate Water Hammer With Valve Positioners
    5/19/2022

    Water hammer, which can occur in just about any pumping system and even steam systems, can lead to pipe breakage, equipment damage or even total system failure. Addressing water hammer at the source is the savviest and most cost-effective way to handle the issue.

  • Dissolved Oxygen Measurement
    11/11/2013

    One of the most important measurements in the determination of the health of a body of water is its dissolved oxygen content. The quantity of dissolved oxygen in water is normally expressed in parts per million (ppm) by weight and is due to the solubility of oxygen from the atmosphere around us.

  • LC-MS Analysis Of PFAS Compounds In EPA Methods 537.1, 533 And 8327
    11/4/2021

    The Ascentis Express PFAS HPLC column is designed for the separation of novel and legacy PFAS as per recent EPA methods. A specific PFAS delay column prevents background PFAS contamination from interfering with sample results in quantitative LC-MS methods.

  • Veterinary Drug Residue Analysis Using The AutoMate-Q40: An Automated Solution To QuEChERS
    10/1/2014

    QuEChERS is a Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe extraction method that has been developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.

  • Ion Exchange Resins And Activated Carbons For Better-Tasting Water
    12/18/2013

    For many, access to good-tasting tap water is limited, and buying bottled water can be expensive. Simple pour-through jug filters offer a low-cost and effective alternative. Activated carbons, in conjunction with ion exchange products, produce drinking water that is absent of all industrial pesticides and contaminants.

  • Free Chlorine Measurement In Drinking Water Treatment
    12/21/2005

    Before water can be used as a safe and reliable source for drinking water, it must be properly treated. Since water is a universal solvent, it comes in contact with several different pathogens, some of which are potentially lethal, and inactivation is accomplished through chemical disinfection and mechanical filtration treatment. This treatment consists of coarse filtration to remove large objects and pre-treatment which includes disinfection using chlorine or ozone

  • VFD Energy Savings For Pumping Applications
    4/6/2017

    In the early days of variable frequency drive (VFD) technology, the typical application was in process control for manufacturing synthetic fiber, steel bars, and aluminum foil.

  • The Basics: Keeping Our Water Clean Requires Monitoring
    4/30/2014

    Keeping the water in our lakes, rivers, and streams clean requires monitoring of water quality at many points as it gradually makes its way from its source to our oceans. Over the years ever increasing environmental concerns and regulations have heightened the need for increased diligence and tighter restrictions on wastewater quality.

  • Remote Monitoring And Maintenance Through Digitalization
    3/17/2020

    Siemens offers to our customers the ability to make both process measurements, and to remotely monitor the activity and health of instrumentation, whether you have a SCADA, PLC or DCS system, or not. By utilizing Siemens’ ability to offer unparalleled flow, level, pressure, temperature, and weight measurement we can provide a broad range of process measurements and offer unequaled monitoring of the health and performance of those products.

DRINKING WATER PRODUCTS

The Series 1520 CHLOR-A-VAC® affords high efficiency addition and mixing of gases and liquid chemicals resulting in substantial chemical cost savings.

The Series NXT3000 Gas Feed System is a family of vacuum-operated, solution-feed gas dispensing components including a vacuum regulator, meter assembly, and a selection of ejectors to meet customer needs for feeding chlorine, sulfur dioxide, ammonia or carbon dioxide gas. The Series NXT3000 is a versatile, high quality system which operates at sonic conditions eliminating the need for regulating differential pressure across the rate control valve. Proven design, rugged construction, and the use of the best available materials assures precise gas feeding, low maintenance and dependable operation for the life of the equipment.

The Proline Promag W 800 electromagnetic flowmeter is a long-lasting battery-powered magmeter with secure system integration and communication.

The Series 1420 CHLOR-A-VAC® affords high efficiency addition and mixing of gases and liquid chemicals resulting in substantial chemical cost savings.

The DE NORA TETRA® ABF bioactive filter combines ozone generation with biologically active filtration for use in municipal water applications. The process targets micropollutant reduction and reduces disinfection byproducts in drinking water and potable reuse applications.

The Aquana AVS AMI-Ready Valve is an IP68 rated remote disconnect ball valve designed to integrate with any existing AMI platform.

LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER

  • Getting a second opinion is a time-tested piece of wisdom. During a recent project for a municipal water supply utility, we found that this advice also applies to modeling the effects storms have on the municipality’s reservoirs and dams, and the potential flooding impacts downstream of the dams.

  • There is a noticeable shift in how monitoring data is being treated across the water sector. It is no longer something that sits quietly in the background of operations, collected for compliance, and reviewed periodically. It is being examined more closely, and more often, by a wider set of stakeholders.

  • Ozone output doesn’t guarantee performance. Learn how mass transfer efficiency determines how much ozone dissolves, drives treatment results, and impacts energy use and system design.

  • Water utility managers and municipal leaders have long struggled amid the convergence of several threats to public water supplies. During a recent Water Online Live event, I sat with a panel of industry experts to examine the transition from reactive crisis management to a proactive, adaptive resilience framework.
  • For a long time, it’s been assumed that closed-loop water systems — those commonly found in building heating systems, air-conditioning units, and cooling systems — are at a low risk for Legionella. However, there are many reasons why closed-loop systems can actually inadvertently promote the risk of Legionella.
  • The journey from manual water-meter reads to a fully integrated digital ecosystem is long and complex. To help utilities along, the Smart Water Networks Forum (SWAN) released the global Smart Metering Playbook, which includes both implementation best practices and common pitfalls. Here are five common advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) rollout mistakes from the Playbook, along with examples of how to overcome them.

DRINKING WATER VIDEOS

North Carolina’s Cape Fear River is a massive water system. It stretches across the lower half of the state, collecting runoff from 29 counties and providing water to millions of people. But in the city of Wilmington, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean, the water has residents worried.

See how SIWA MDM user experience is easy with various billing tiles and screens to help optimize the billing processes. Quickly see billing readiness, request activity in a highly configurable dashboard.

After rising public pressure and lawsuits over health concerns, the city of Newark, New Jersey (a half-hour from New York City) is undertaking one of the most ambitious and impactful infrastructure projects in the country: replacing all of its residential lead service lines within 2 years.

This video gives an overview of the features and benefits of the YSI Professional Plus, or Pro Plus, handheld multiparameter water quality instrument.

Get a closer look at how SIWA MDM Analytics Foundation transforms utility data into actionable insight.

ABOUT DRINKING WATER

In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:

  1. Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
  2. Drinking water treatment of source water
  3. Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers

Drinking Water Sources

Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater. 

Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.

Drinking Water Treatment

Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.

There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.

The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.

The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.

During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.

Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.

Drinking Water Distribution

Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.

A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.

Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.